Marine economics and weird music

Here we go again

Kalle Lasn, founder and editor of Adbusters magazine, says in the latest edition of Solutions Journal:

“I predict we’re going to move away from large occupations of parks and we’ll have surprise, one-day occupations of banks and corporations and the economics departments of universities”

There you have it: banks, corporations, economists. All latter-day Scrooges. Further down the interview:

“I hope you tell [Herman Daly and Robert Costanza, founders of ecological economics] that from my perspective their ideas are reaching fruition, and I wish they would encourage their followers to be more aggressive. Suddenly, old and young people are pushing against the system and it’s time for ecological economists to stand up and be counted and not just play academic games in the background. Joseph Stiglitz actually went to Zuccotti Park and gave a talk. We need more of that. We need them to champion their paradigm.

We also don’t have full cost accounting. There is a dream among Occupiers to have a global market where products show their ecological cost, which would reflect their true cost. They will find that the price of cars goes up and bikes goes down. Maybe that McDonald’s napkin could suddenly have a certain price to it. And apples from New Zealand would have a different price. How much does all that stuff from China going to Walmart truly cost in environmental damage?”

Lasn’s “full cost accounting” is called a “Pigouvian tax” in any mainstream, neoclassical, economics text book. It’s really not that controversial.